The present invention relates to a firefighter coat wherein sleeve wells or water wells are disposed within the lower ends of the sleeves of the coat. This invention represents an improvement over the construction disclosed in U. S. Pat. No. 5,890,226, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
As pointed out in the above patent, the sleeve wells prevent water from flowing into the sleeves especially when the arms of the firefighter are raised during firefighting activities. It has been found that when a wrister comes out of an associated coat sleeve during such activities, the snap fasteners employed in the patented construction tend to come undone. This, of course, is a very dangerous occurrence; and a solution to this problem became necessary.
In addition, the snap fasteners employed in each sleeve of the patented construction are four in number such that when snapped in place, the fasteners only provide a connection between the lower end of each liner sleeve and the lower end of the associated shell sleeve at four widely spaced points. This results in large gaps where the liner sleeves and the associated shell sleeves are not connected together. These gaps can allow water to flow into the shell sleeves. This problem required redesign of the connection between the liner sleeves and the associated shell sleeves to eliminate gaps in the connection.
The present invention incorporates a construction wherein the lower open ends of the sleeves of the liner are detachably connected to the lower open ends of the sleeves of the shell by attachment means in the form of two annular interengaging attachment portions. Each of the annular portions within a coat sleeve comprises part of a hook and loop fastening means such as VELCRO which enables quick and easy attaching and detaching of the lower end of a liner sleeve with respect to the associated shell sleeve. Since the attachment portions within each coat sleeve are annular in construction, there are no gaps formed between the interengaging attachment portions, thereby eliminating the undesirable gaps of the patented structure discussed above. This ensures that substantially no water can flow into the shell sleeves. Furthermore, the attachment between the liner sleeves and the shell sleeves is much more secure than is the case with spaced snap fasteners, thereby ensuring that the attachment portions will not be disengaged when a wrister comes out of an associated sleeve during firefighting activities.
Sleeve wells are provided within the lower ends of the liner sleeves of the present invention in the same manner as disclosed in the aforementioned patent.
One of the annular attachment portions within each coat sleeve is stitched to the lower end of the outer moisture barrier of the associated liner sleeve and faces outwards of the associated liner sleeve. The other of the annular attachment portions within each coat sleeve is stitched to an annular moisture barrier and faces inwardly of the associated shell sleeve. Each annular moisture barrier is disposed within the lower portion of an associated shell sleeve and has top and bottom portions which are stitched to the associated shell sleeve.
A band of trim material surrounds the lower end portion of each of the shell sleeves and is stitched thereto by a number of lines of stitching. The top portion of each annular moisture barrier is stitched to the associated liner sleeve at a region disposed above the band of trim material on the associated shell sleeve. Each annular moisture barrier thereby serves as a means for mounting an annular attachment portion, and further also prevents water which may enter through the stitching holding the band of trim material in place from moving upwardly within the associated shell sleeve. In addition, each annular moisture barrier also provides an extra layer of thermal protection for a firefighter.